


Reincarnation

by CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines



Series: ATLA and LOK Challenge 2020 [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA and LOK Challenge 2020, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25623802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines/pseuds/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines
Summary: A conversation between Kya and Katara about a year after Aang's death.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Series: ATLA and LOK Challenge 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857409
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Reincarnation

Katara’s gaze scanned over the snow-covered streets she could see from her window for the nth time that day, her cup gone cold in her hand.

It was all she did these days, with everyone else gone one way or another.

All but Kya, who out of a combination of pity for a widow and a need to re-evaluate her life after her own personal turmoil, came back to the South Pole to live with her mother once more.

“Mom-” Kya’s voice pierced through the meditations of the elder woman and all Katara did was hum, still too focused on peering over the streets looking for her husband or whom had become him.

“Mom, your cup’s gone cold”

“Quite so-” Katara’s face twitched in a peaceful appreciation of sorts and she bit down on her lips, her wrinkled face moving rather sluggishly as Katara meditated further and further on what she could see: A city of ice and metal, people going around their business as usual, the world spinning with its comings and goings marked by ash-grey clouds and children playing whatever things children played these days.

There were _so many_ of them. So many it was hard to believe there was a time there was a handful of them that Sokka trained personally.

‘ _And now, he’s out there, refusing to see he’s gotten old too; with him. Or her. Who knows really?_ ’

“Let me warm that up for you-” Kya offered as Katara absentmindedly took a sip and grimaced.

It truly had gone cold and sour. And Katara worried she was doing the exact same thing.

“I’m sorry-” Katara suddenly croaked through a choked up throat and she tried to look at her daughter through clouded eyes as tears filled her eyes, starting to streak down her face as she spoke further “I know I haven’t been myself”

“It’s fine-” Kya comforted her mother, gently placing a hand on the elderly woman’s back “You have every right”

“Do I?” Katara asked more to herself than to her daughter “You derailed your life just to keep me company after your father died”

“I derailed my life myself-” Kya, in her usual humor, mocked herself a little “Here I’m finding myself. Again”

“I really can’t help but wonder, you know?” Katara took one of the sleeves of her coat and dried the tears “Where and how he is. Who he is”

“He’s here-” Kya said as she stared out the window herself, her eyes shining with something Katara couldn’t quite name but it wasn’t the sadness the elder woman felt “In the South. I just know it deep down in me somehow. He’s here and you’ll get to see the new him soon”

“You are aware it will take quite the long time to find him, right?” Katara felt the need to remind her daughter of the fact that usually, almost two centuries ago when normal was four nations of multiple thousands of people, the Avatar was announced to the world at sixteen after years of searching and the methodical analysis of the selections toddlers made.

“Nah-” Kya dismissed the notion outright before acknowledging what her denial sounded like “I mean, yes, I’m aware it used to take decades to find the Avatar but I wholeheartedly believe we’ll see dad’s new self soon. Very, very soon. And you have nothing to worry about whether the new one is found tomorrow or in thirty years if I remember a certain prophesy correctly”

“I still can’t believe Sokka raves about that old Fortune teller after all these years” Katara scoffed half-smiling in delight at the memories from so long ago.

“She did told him he was going to die by his own fault” Kya retorted, her voice with a light hint of amusement.

“And he’s gotten too old to die young, fortunately” Katara admitted quite thankful.

“You’ll train the new Avatar, you’ll see” Kya tried to comfort her mother with more memories of their old adventures “And Aunt Toph will beat some sense into them, and Uncle Zuko will chase them around for old times’ sake. The only thing that’ll be missing will be a sense of humor from Tenzin”

Katara snorted much to her own chagrin at the usual joke Kya and Bumi had of the youngest of their brothers.

“Now, now, don’t get too ahead of yourself-” Katara tried to quell the hope starting to rise inside of her that one day, the good days would somehow return and with them, Aang “The world’s changed and while I can’t deny I’d love to go back to old adventures and the best of memories, the reality is that…”

As Katara trailed off, Kya became suddenly worried and her heart skipped a beat before her mother brought herself out of her reverie to finish her sentence.

“Aang is dead and one day I’ll be dead too. My brother, Zuko, Toph, all of us will die sooner rather than later and no matter how many statues are built in our honor all over the world, we will become memories bound to that of your father’s _but_ that is not as grim it sounds”

“I know-Dying is what makes life a once in a lifetime show” Kya said an old adage of her father a bit morosely, but fondly.

“Not only that-” Katara nodded with a gentle smile, recognizing the words “but also because…it’s a good thing to die”

Kya became worried by this line of thought, her face twisting in confusion and dread, so Katara quickly appeased her daughter.

“I’ve made old bones, a lot of people I knew and know did too” Katara pondered, her eyes far off in the distance, but not the distance of space.

Rather: Off in the distance of time.

“Sadly also many people I knew did not-” Katara’s voice turned low and somehow that made it all the more wiseful “I’ve told you of some of them, and others I haven’t because I feel it best not to. Yet from everyone I’ve ever met there isn’t at least one thing I could learn from them”

Katara looked at her daughter and her eyes were those of the young waterbender that defeated a nation and ended a century of war, not those of the old crone she felt like just moments ago.

“And just like your father taught me all those things, it’s time for a new person to teach others the same and more, and as such, every life and every death is a lifetime show.” Katara looked away, at the horizon, with a fond smile “My show is ending, and I miss the old show that kept me entertained, but there’s a beauty in that it’s over I simply can’t put into words”

Katara then noticed Chief Tonraq and his wife across the street, coming in for their appointment. Their little one had been sick and like all new parents they were worried.

“Please, darling-” Katara handed over her cup as she started to make her way to the door “Heat it up once they’re gone. I’d hate it if it went cold again”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this! Please check out my other stories!!


End file.
